Canada’s Right To Try Act ​​​​- On November 2nd, 2016, all Federal Members of Parliament received an email entitled ‘Canada’s Right To Try’, sent to their @parl.gc.ca inbox. (CNW Group/Right To Try Canada)

334 MP's are urged to acknowledge and support terminally-ill patients, by providing an alternative option to Bill C-14.

OTTAWA, Nov. 3, 2016 /CNW/ - On November 2nd, 2016, all Federal Members of Parliament received an email entitled 'Canada's Right To Try', sent to their @parl.gc.ca inbox.

Terminally-ill patients are requesting faster access to potential life-saving treatments. Members of Parliament being asked to sign the 'Certificate of Acknowledgement and Support'. Our goals is to ensure the 'Right to Try Act' is brought to the attention of Health Minister, Honourable Jane Philpott.

Shortly after his terminal diagnosis, Owen Thomas, drafted the 'Right to Try Act' in response to Bill C-14, which was coined the "Right to Die Act". Bill C-14, recently passed by our current federal government, grants a terminally-ill patient whose death is reasonably foreseeable, access to a physician-assisted suicide.

However, it should also follow that terminally-ill patients, whose death is reasonably foreseeable, be granted another option: the Right To Try. This would allow patients and doctors the 'right' to access potential life-saving treatment and/or drugs that may slow progression, improve quality of life, and possibly save our lives before considering the right afforded under Bill C-14.

It is important to remember that the 'Right to Try Act' applies only to terminally-ill patients who represent a small portion of the country's population. It would have no application to, nor would it in any way interfere with, Health Canada's existing protocol governing clinical trials for non-fatal diseases.- Owen Thomas, Lawyer, ALS Patient & Author of the Right To Try Act.

The Act allows terminally-ill patients faster access to potential life-saving treatments. The Act proposes 'Pilot' experimental trials (see section 4 of the Act). It is our contention that there's insufficient inclusions in Health Canada's Special Access Programme, and deficiencies of the current clinical trial system, for terminally ill individuals.

Please visit www.righttotrycanada.com to read more about Canadians suffering with terminal illnesses. Our loved ones are dying and this Act truly is the last hope they have in saving their lives. We need, more than anything, for it to pass in Parliament. By exposing this story, we hope to bring it to the forefront of our nation's consciousness.

The 'Right to Try Act' was written by Owen Thomas, with co-contributors including Kim Lewis, Jeffrey Perreault, his wife Dr. Brittney Parlett, Jakah MacDonald, and Owen's mother, Rhian Calcott. Right to Try is grounded in the belief that government should make it easier for people to reach their full potential. Right to Die is grounded in the belief that government should make it easier for people to give up on that potential. https://www.righttotrycanada.com/about.html